Medwyn Williams is getting started with parsley
A bit of patience and a willingness to experiment with sowing is required!
Abit of patience is needed to be successful with parsley. Well that and a willingness to experiment with sowing!
Parsley is a plant that can be difficult to germinate. It can take up to six weeks and will need some bottom heat at this time of year. There’s confusing information out there regarding whether or not we cover the seed when sowing. Some recommend not covering them at all, while others say you should cover them with 1cm (½in) of compost, which seems to me to be far too deep. Then some suggest as the outer coating on parsley seed is very hard, soaking the seeds in warm water overnight before they’re planted gives the best results.
Folklore says the reason for slow and unreliable germination of parsley is that the seed goes nine times to the Devil and back before coming up. The non-germinated seed were the ones the Devil kept for himself! In some areas, the belief went even further, claiming that only if the woman was master of the household would parsley start to grow – I’ll make no further comment on that one!
I sow my ‘Faulds’ parsley seed on top of some Levington F1S compost in a seed tray and gently press them into the compost. I then cover them over very lightly with some super-fine Vermiculite. I float the tray in water so the compost takes it in from below until fully saturated. Rather than soaking the seed overnight, I’ll cover the seed tray with a pane of glass which should trap the moisture inside and thereby aid germination. Once the seedlings are large enough to handle, I’ll move on into cell trays and then into larger pots.
We’ve had some really cold weather on the island here but thankfully no snow. The cold weather brings its own problems in terms of keeping plants growing with the increased fuel costs. But my problem this year was mice. I left the greenhouse one day after sowing 10 trays of onion seed only to return the morning after to find the Vermiculite and compost spread all over the heated bench. The mice had made their way in and created havoc. A lesson to learn – it pays to lay down a trap or two.